


Whumptober Day 16/17 - Pinned Down & "Stay With Me"

by TexdoesHalo



Series: Whumptober - 2019 [16]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Accidental Death, Angst, Attempted Kidnapping, Bandits & Outlaws, Bleeding Out, Broken nose, Canonical Character Death, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fear, Grief/Mourning, Gunshot Wounds, Heavy Angst, Held Down, Hurt/Comfort, I missed day 16 so I decided to combine it and day 17, Jack Feels, Jack Needs a Hug, Jack-Centric, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nightmares, Panic, Past Character Death, Poor Jack, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Sirens, Sobbing, Trauma, Traumatized Jack, Watching your wife die has gotta be super traumatizing, Whump, Whumptober, Whumptober 2019, Widowed, covered in blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-21 15:17:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21077036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TexdoesHalo/pseuds/TexdoesHalo
Summary: Jack doesn't want to remember...he really doesn't. It hurts too much to bear...Why couldn't he save her?





	Whumptober Day 16/17 - Pinned Down & "Stay With Me"

**Author's Note:**

> After missing yesterday I did some thinking and realized either of these alone would end up shorter than I’d like so I’m gonna combine them!
> 
> *Also warning this contains serious spoilers for Jack and Angel’s backstory (the parts revealed in BL3)*

Pandora was a shitstain of a planet. Jack had thought that before, but it was clearer now than ever with his face pressed into the dirt. Rough hands yanked his arms behind him, pinning the furious man down with ease.

High-pitched screams had Jack struggling even harder.  _ No no no no not my Angel! Not my wife!!  _ Thrashing wildly under the bandit, Jack steeled himself and threw his head back, nearly cheering in success as he felt cartilage crunch from the force of the blow.

The bandit fell backward, crying out in pain as blood gushed from his ruined nose. Using the opening to scramble to his feet, Jack looked up and froze. His wife was untouched, watching with wide scared eyes as the other bandits laughed and just moved their hands to their guns. But that wasn’t what terrified the panicked father.

Angel. His sweet, precious little Angel, was in the bruising grip of the gang’s leader. Grogmit...Grogmatt...Grog...Grog-something! It didn’t matter...what mattered was that the man was flanked by two turrets and he was grinning down at Angel like she was some kind of fucking prize.

“Listen you filthy bandit...just...just give us back our daughter okay?” Jack’s eyes flicked back and forth between Grogwhatever and Angel, hands balling into fists as he helplessly watched his little girl try to yank her arm free. “Let me go! Let me go!!”

The bastard just laughed, grubby hand tightening its grasp on Angel, “No way! The kid’s a friggin’ Siren! I’m gonna be a trillionaire! You and your wife just get out of here before I sic my turrets on ya. Forget about the kid, just go make another one!” 

Jack opened his mouth to respond, but stopped, eyes widening as Angel’s arm began to glow. His little girl squirmed and screamed, the turrets sparking and jerking to life, “I WANT TO GO HOME!! LET ME GO!!!”

Jack barely had half a second to react, lunging toward his shocked wife as the ratata of gunfire pierced the air. “Honey get down! No! No NO!!!” Bullets riddled the surprised bandits, skimming past Jack as he reached out, but was a heartbeat too slow.

He could only watch as 3 bullets slammed into his wife’s chest, blood spurting from the wounds, body going limp and slumping to the ground. Arms wrapping around her just in time to prevent her from hitting the dirt, Jack pressed a hand to her chest, trying in vain to slow the bleeding.

“No no no no...honey don’t do this..please...stay with me, honey...stay with me!!” Hot tears welled in mismatched eyes, grief squeezing his heart in a painful vice as his beloved took her last breath. “No...no no no…”

Head raising slowly, Jack’s eyes landed on a blood-soaked Angel, the young Siren standing just a foot away, trembling wildly as she stared down at her mother’s body. “Mommy? Mommy no! No!!” She dropped to her little knees with a heartbroken sob, shaking pale hands reaching out to grasp at her mom’s shirt. “Mommy come back!!”

Unable to bear the pain, Jack squeezed his eyes shut, tears spilling over as bloody fingers twisted and pulled in his hair. He fought the urge to scream, Angel doing it for him as she begged and begged for her mother to wake up, to come back.

“You could have saved me.”

Fear, cold, unyielding fear stabbed through Jack like a knife. Opening reddened eyes, he forced his gaze to turn to his wife and what he saw took his breath away. His dead wife was staring at him with glazed over eyes, wait, no it was actually more like she was staring  _ through  _ him.

She didn’t blink, didn’t twitch, didn’t even breathe as she opened her mouth, dead eyes burning a hole through Jack’s heart. “You could have saved me. Why didn’t you save me?” Blood spilled over pale lips, dripping to the floor and seeping forward, soaking into Jack’s pants where he kneeled in the dirt.

“I trusted you. You failed me. You failed  _ us.  _ Why didn’t you save me? Why didn’t you save me, John? WHY DIDN’T YOU  ** _SAVE ME!!_ ** ” Surging upward suddenly, the dead woman threw herself at Jack, screaming like the devil as he fell back onto his ass, mouth opening in a cry of fear-

“AHHH!!!”

Jack shot upright in bed, panting and gasping as he struggled to catch his breath. A thin sheen of sweat covered his skin, hair plastered to his maskless forehead. There was a cold hand on his arm and Jack screamed, throwing himself back with such fervor he tumbled off the bed with a startled squawk.

  
  


“Jack? Are you okay?”

Groaning, Jack lifted his head from where it had collided with the wood floor, squinting up at the dark form staring down at him. “Rhys? Wha-what happened?” Dammit, his head hurt like hell...what was going on?

A tired sigh escaped the younger and after some rustling thin arms wrapped gently around Jack, the kid having shifted to the floor to comfort the still-on-edge man. “I’m gonna take a guess and say you had a nightmare, Jack. It’s okay though, it’s over now.”

_ A nightmare? Handsome Jack doesn’t have nightmares… _

“You sure, pumpkin? That doesn’t sound right…” Jack raised a brow and glanced down at Rhys, who simply stared up at him from under a dark mass of unkempt curls. “Yes, Jack. I know you don’t want to admit it but even Handsome Jack can have nightmares.”

Stretching up to kiss Jack lightly on the nose, Rhys smiled softly at the obviously uncomfortable and uncertain man, “It’s okay, Jack. I promise it’s okay. Whether you want to acknowledge them or not, I’ll be here to help you through them okay? I promise I will.”

With a deep sigh of resignation, Jack dropped his head and tucked Rhys under his chin, cradling the younger against his chest. “Okay…okay…”

“...thanks Rhysie…”

**Author's Note:**

> Oof that was hard to write. Jack and Angel both deserved so much better. I will scream it till I die
> 
> Kudos and comments give me sustenance~


End file.
